A 23-year-old Michigan man and his mother have been charged with killing the man’s girlfriend who was found dead in a bin in an SUV.
Jalen Pendergrass and 49-year-old Charla Pendergrass were each charged with second degree murder on Thursday in the death of 17-year-old London Thomas, who was found dead in Southfield three weeks after her mother and sister reported her missing, the Detroit News reported.
Inkster Police said Thomas was last seen April 5 at Jalen Pendergrass’s Carlysle Street home near Inkster Road, as CrimeOnline reported. Police later searched the home, assisted by the FBI.
Three weeks later, Thomas’ body was found in a plastic bin in an SUV after receiving information from a friend of Charla Pendergrass that she had asked him on April 7 to “transport a sealed plastic bin with unknown contents,” prosecutors said, according to the News.
“He received and placed the bin in a SUV on Millard Street in Southfield on April 11,” prosecutors said.
Police conducted a search on April 26 and found Thomas’s body. An autopsy determined that she died from asphyxia and the manner of death was homicide.
“The evidence shows that Defendants Jaylen and Charla Pendergrass allegedly committed the homicide of Ms. London Thomas,” the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said. “The extensive facts and evidence will be presented in court at the preliminary examination.”
Mother and son are set to be arraigned on Friday.
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[Featured image: London Thomas/Detroit Police Department]
